This invention relates to a feeding device for feeding strip blanks of wafer biscuits into molds intended for forming coated wafer biscuits, particularly in multiple coated wafer production systems or the like.
As is known, the commercial production of traditional wafer biscuits has been recently supplemented with a new type of wafer biscuit comprising two wafer strips which alternate, in a manner known per se, with cream products, the whole being then coated with a layer of chocolate such as to leave a slab of chocolate intermediate to the two strips. That type of wafer biscuit, or wafer candy, has enjoyed widespread acceptance by the consumer, and its demand is growing steadily.
On the other hand, that type wafer biscuits are formed in strip blanks of limited width, thereby their handling, which already was critical with traditional wafer biscuits or candies, is still more difficult and troublesome, owing both to the small size of the wafer strips and to the difficulty of picking them up manually after they have been cut.
It is current practice, in preparing chocolate coated wafer biscuits, to introduce the wafer biscuits into pouring molds--in general either manually, or by means of feeding devices which, however, cannot ensure continuity of operation and do not afford as high a processing rate as would be desirable. In addition to complex feeding devices of conventional design (DT-OS No. 1532375), wherein individual wafer strips are cut off a wafer plate or board by means of pressure knives or guillotine blades which retain the individual strips by frictional engagement, the strips being then ejected to their related molds, a device by this Applicant is also known (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 898,765, filed on Mar. 21, 1978), wherein the individual strips are inserted, following the cutting step, into the molds by application of a push force from a comb arranged to move on a feeding slide, the feeding action occurring by means of a feeding chute provided with fan-like arranged troughs.
In the first-mentioned device, the individual strips are acted upon in a rather coarse manner, such that additionally to creating biscuit crumbles in considerable amounts, frequent breaking and separation of the individual wafers occurs in the strips, thereby on one hand, a tendency has developed towards the use of creams possessed of strong adhesive properties, while on the other hand the intermittingly carried out feeding operation must be frequently interrupted for a clean-up.
In the Applicant's, or last-mentioned, device, by contrast, a more continuous operation is achieved, which is facilitated by the provision of openings for the removal of processing crumbles.
In actual practice, however, it has been found that even the last-mentioned device requires occasional clean-ups in order to remove cream deposits which have built up during the passage of the wafer strips along the sheet metal fillets that separate the feeding troughs from one another.